


Help is on the Way

by gillimon97



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, grocery store au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-29
Updated: 2016-10-20
Packaged: 2018-07-10 21:20:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7008586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gillimon97/pseuds/gillimon97
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A grocery store au in which Carmilla works self-scan. Dealing with idiots who don't know how to work a machine that gives you step by step instructions drives her mad, that is until Laura decides to come through. Laura can't help but break the machine constantly, but for once in her life Carmilla is happy to help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Basically this is the first fic I've written so it's probably bad, but I'm bored.

That line. God how she hates that line, partially because she’s not allowed to cross it, not that she really listens to that rule, but mostly because of the color. Is it blue or purple? No one really knows, but yet for some reason that ambiguously colored line acts as a cage. She stares at the line as though her glare were enough to erase it, however an even more annoying voice inevitably interrupts the one sided staring contest.

“Please wait help is on the way,” the voice drones on.

As much as Carmilla hates it, she is the help the machine has called upon. She sighs and walks over to help another idiot who probably doesn’t know how to read.

“None of my sales came off” a middle-aged woman states, clearly not happy at the cost.

“Did you put a card in?” Carmilla asks though she already knows the answer is no.

“No. Why do you still have cards? That’s stupid. I don’t have one of those...” The lady continues her spiel, but Carmilla stops listening almost immediately, taking the time to press the forgot card button for the twentieth time in the past two hours. 

Carmilla points to the screen. “There are your savings,” she mutters before walking away.

When they told her she could work self-scan instead of the normal cash register, Carmilla was excited. It was less work and she didn’t have to talk to nearly as many people, which seemed perfect. It turned out self-scan was little more than glorified time out. She was stuck in a small area, cut off from the other employees and forced to help only the people who were too dumb to ring groceries and who really didn’t want the help in the first place. It almost made her want to go back to cashiering...almost. Self-scan meant waiting for things to break and well that was something she was used to. Plus it gave her plenty of time to brood and she liked that.  
Unfortunately her brooding was always interrupted. Another light starts blinking and off she goes to help another dimwit. However, as she reaches the screen displaying a need for help, she’s surprised to see a girl around her own age. It’s odd to see anyone other than old men and coupon carrying soccer moms. The girl’s cute, Carmilla will admit that, but she’s still not “happy to help” despite how many times that is written on her uniform.

“What’s up, cupcake?” Carmilla asks the girl who’s staring at the screen like it’s a puzzle she just can’t seem to figure out.

“Huh?” she replies. 

“Your light is blinking,” Carmilla says pointing to the light.  
The girls eyes follow Carmilla’s hand. “Oh, yeah, that,” she replies. “I swear most of these prices were different when I was shopping. I only have twenty dollars, which should be enough but somehow it’s not.”

Carmilla sighs, it’s the same issue as the woman before her, one she deals with all the time and usually it annoys her, but for some reason her frown is a little less harsh than usual when she pushes the magic button that makes all the savings show up. “You needed the loyalty card. I put one in for you.” 

“Thank you!” A smile spreads across the girl’s face.

“No problem” Carmilla turns to say as she walks away. The phrase isn’t filled with quite as much sarcasm as usual. Carmilla glances over her shoulder, just to make sure she won’t have to come back, she assures herself, however the light is blinking again.

“So we meet again, cutie. What’s the problem this time?”

“It’s Laura...My name I mean, not the problem.” Carmilla swears she sees her blush and that’s probably the best thing she’s ever seen at this job, not that that’s a big deal, it’s a pretty boring place. “Anyway, remember how I said I only had twenty dollars...well your machine here seems to have eaten my money and I would very much like it if the thing would give it back.”

“That’s how you pay, sweetheart” Carmilla replies with a smirk.

“I know that…” Laura pauses looking for a name tag that Carmilla is definitely not wearing. “Whatever your name is,” she huffs a little annoyed at the situation. “Aren’t you supposed to wear a name tag? And what I was trying to explain was that I tried to pay, but the machine seems to have decided that it’s not gonna give me my change or even acknowledge that I payed at all.”

“I see,” Carmilla manages to say amused greatly by Laura’s frustration. “And the name you were looking for is Carmilla, but if I wanted people to know that I would be wearing a name tag. I’ll get you your change and receipt. Be right back.” Carmilla leaves shaking her head. This girl is crazy and yet Carmilla is intrigued. There aren’t many interesting customers, she thinks to herself as she retrieves the change and receipt from another register. She quickly returns to the register where Laura is waiting.

“That was fast,” Laura says and yeah that was fast, probably the fastest Carmilla has ever returned. It didn’t seem like so much of a chore this time and that made Carmilla a little uncomfortable. “Thank you, Carmilla. Have a nice day.” 

“You too,” Carmilla replies and she actually means it. 

Carmilla watches the girl leave. Everything about that interaction was strange, but in a good way. Carmilla starts to replay the scenario in her head, however her thoughts are quickly cut short as the blinking lights call for assistance. “Duty calls,” Carmilla mutters as she shuffles over to help yet another clueless fool.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura decides to make cookies, but she has to pick up a few ingredients. So she uses this opportunity to prove to Carmilla that she is capable of using self-scan, but things don't exactly go as planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't sure if I was ever gonna continue this, but some people seemed interested. So thanks to everyone who expressed their interest, I greatly appreciate it.

She swings the cabinet door open and searches the shelves. “There you are,” Laura declares to the bag of sugar on the top shelf as though they had been playing a game of hide and seek. “I knew I would find you. Now would you do me a favor and come down from there?” The top shelf was not the place she was hoping to find it. How had she managed to put anything up there in the first place? Maybe Danny had put it back that one time she asked to borrow some sugar. Laura never thought that was a real thing, neighbors asking to borrow a cup of sugar, but well it had happened and now the sugar was far out of Laura’s reach. She would have to drag a chair over, but she didn’t want to do that. That would be admitting defeat, and she’d taken enough lessons in everything from gymnastics to krav maga that she refused be stopped by a counter-top. So she decides to climb onto the counters. It had been a long time since she’d been to the playground, but she remembers it being a lot like this. 

“I got you now,” Laura gloats as she grabs the sugar and carefully climbs down off the counter-top.  
Climbing counters wasn’t really on Laura’s agenda for the day, but she wanted cookies and she’s wasn’t going to settle for anything less than homemade. She wasn’t sure if she had everything she needed, but she could always go to the store if she needed. In fact she almost wanted to go to the store if only to prove that she was in fact capable of using self checkout even if the girl, Carmilla, didn’t think she could, so she is somewhat disappointed when she finally uncovers the sugar as it’s the last thing she needs to make sugar cookies. But what if she wants to make chocolate chip cookies? Who says it has to be sugar cookies? And with that thought the decision is made.  
__________

The store is busier than she had anticipated. Who the heck goes to the store on a Wednesday night? Well her sure, but she was just buying one thing, everyone else seems to be trying to buy half the store. As she makes her way to the baking aisle she has to dodge several carriages piled with groceries to a point where she’s not sure how things aren’t falling off. People really need to learn to drive those things. 

Eventually, after weaving through shopping cart traffic, Laura makes it safely to baking aisle and grabs a bag of chocolate chips. “You’re just what I need,” she whispers to the chocolate chips. She doesn’t normally talk to the ingredients this much, but for some reason she’s recently become more aware of how often she’s alone and well it’s nice to talk, even if it’s to food. She has friends and they’re great, but they have lives too and she can’t expect them to spend every minute talking with her. She is at the store now though, so she could probably talk to the people here rather than the products and well she would talk to a cashier, but she had already decided to use self scan if only to wipe the smug look off Carmilla’s face.

With chocolate chips in hand, Laura soon makes her way to the machine. She can’t stop thinking about what happened the other day when she had tried this whole self-checkout thing once before. How was she supposed to know this store had a loyalty card? She thought stores had done away with those long ago, but the broody girl who seemed to be in charge of these machines came over and put one in for her. Her clothes said “happy to help” but Laura wasn’t too sure about that as she came over looking miserable. She seemed to get a kick out of Laura’s cluelessness though and Laura swears she saw Carmilla smile. A very small smile, more like a smirk, but it was something and well Laura liked that smile, but what she liked even more was proving people wrong and this time she was going to prove to Carmilla that she could use the machines without help.

Laura looks around for Carmilla before doing anything and there she is, and it looks like she’s reading a book. Laura stares at her for just a little bit longer she probably should, but there’s something fascinating about her. Laura wonders what she’s reading, but before she can shift her eyes from Carmilla to the book, Carmilla looks up and suddenly they're making eye contact. Laura quickly looks away deciding to focus on her transaction, but she can feel Carmilla watching her now. Which is good because she’s going to pull off this transaction without help and Carmilla is going to see that she isn’t as dumb as their first encounter made her appear.  
The first thing Laura does is scan the stupid loyalty card that she had signed up for after she had accepted that she needed one. She sneaks a glance at Carmilla who is still definitely watching her and it seems like she’s chuckling. She has no reason to be chuckling, Laura is definitely doing this right. That’s when Laura hears it.

“Gracias por usar su tarjeta,” the machine utters in what Laura recognizes as definitely not English. Why is it in Spanish? And more importantly how does she make it English again? Refusing to give Carmilla the satisfaction of asking for help, Laura tries to fix it herself, pressing button after button in hopes that one of them changes the language.

“La ayuda está en camino,” the obnoxious robotic voice states. Laura isn’t sure what’s it’s saying but when she looks up and sees the light is blinking she realizes that in her attempt to avoid asking for help she has in fact accidentally asked for assistance. And here comes Carmilla, strolling over, a smug smile spread across her face. She’s not even trying to hide it and Laura knows it.

“So we meet again, cutie. What seems to be the problem,” Carmilla asks, but Laura can tell she already knows the answer and clearly Carmilla finds it hilarious.

“Well apparently this machine seems to think I speak Spanish,” Laura states. “Which is cool and all, but I do not in fact speak spanish.”

“I see. Maybe you should have been staring at the register instead of me when you started,” Carmilla replied enjoying the situation a little too much.

“I wasn’t staring at you,” Laura stumbles over her words, “I was just trying to figure out what you were reading, which I bet you’re not even supposed to be doing while at work.”

“Sure you were, sweetheart. And trust me when this is your job you need something to fill the free time.” Carmilla doesn’t believe her for a second and Laura can’t blame her. She wouldn’t have believed her either. “Anyway back to your little language issue. See the thing is, I can’t actually change the language once the transaction is started so you’re gonna have to deal with it. I can show you what buttons to push if you need me to though.” With that said, the only buttons Carmilla was pushing were Laura’s and Laura was not having it.

“No thanks, I think it got this. And once again, I do in fact have a name. It’s Laura.” That will show her.

“Alright, cupcake. But can you tell me that in Spanish?” Carmilla replies walking away to let Laura finish her purchase.

Laura huffed. Man this girl knew how to get on her nerves. Why did she decide on chocolate chip cookies again? Alas she was already here and well she was going to finish this transaction without anymore help. Laura quickly scans the chocolate chips and presses what she is fairly certain is the finish and pay option. The machine says something else which she thinks has something to do with coupons before reaching the payment screen. Laura clicks the picture of a credit card and pays quickly. She wasn’t going to risk using cash again. Her receipt starts printing and the robotic voice says a few more things. Laura feels victorious. She knew she could do it, even if she did accidentally call for help.

Smiling at her success Laura grabs her receipt and heads to the bagging area to bag her item and leave, but she finds her chocolate chips already in a bag. She looks over at Carmilla who is back to reading her book. Laura lets out a small laugh, these are gonna be some good cookies.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Buying an apple isn't as easy as scanning packages of cookies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to everyone who has expressed interest in this little story. I appreciate the support. I'm gonna try my best to update at least once a week, ideally more often than that but who knows.
> 
> Also like connect with me on tumblr if you like @gillimon97

Heads. Heads. Tails. Heads. Tails. Heads. Carmilla keeps flipping the coin in an attempt to overcome the boredom. She’s been at work for five hours already and still has another two hours to go and boy were those going to be a long two hours. The store has been a ghost town since she came back from her break, which was not nearly long enough. She’s had to help three people since returning: a deaf old man who insisted the machine wouldn’t take his money, a woman who would not accept that her coupon was expired, and some teenage boy who reeked of weed and was clearly too high to function. Those were such common issues and took mere seconds to resolve and so she was left to find something to fill the other thousands of seconds. Flipping coins was her solution. It wasn’t exciting but sometimes it began to seem as if probability stopped being a thing as the coin would keep coming up heads to a point where it seemed as though heads was the only outcome. Tails would always show up eventually and ruin the fun. Stupid tails. 

Carmilla tosses the coin into the air one final time. Heads she collects the baskets under the registers, tails she puts some more bags out. Neither option is anything more than a nuisance of a task, but she can’t keep doing all this nothing. Carmilla catches the coin. It’s heads. Baskets it is. Why people can’t just carry things or use a cart, Carmilla will never understand.

Carmilla goes register by register piling up baskets until the pile is about as tall as her. She picks it up and heads towards the door. That many baskets is heavy, but that’s not the issue. Carmilla is plenty strong but with a pile that tall it’s hard to tell what’s going on around you. So she cautiously makes her way to the entrance where the baskets need to be stacked. 

“Woah careful there,” a familiar voice calls out from the other side of the pile.

“Sorry,” Carmilla replies. The pile is only a few feet away. She puts the baskets down quickly.

“It’s alright,” the same voice replied. Where did she know that voice from again?

Carmilla turns around to see who it was she almost dropped and pile of baskets on and well, oh. Well she certainly knows why she recognized the voice now. Who else would it be, but Laura. The girl who seems to find every way possible to mess up self-scan and yet fascinates Carmilla all the same.

“Sorry again, cutie,” Carmilla manages to say before she notices that she actually has work to do for the first time in an hour. Why do people always need help when she’s actually doing something? She had technically finished what she was doing, but still, having to help was inconvenient. “Gotta go. Help is on the way,” Carmilla mutters, the words filled with sarcasm. She thinks she hears Laura giggle in response, but maybe that is just in her head.

Carmilla saunters back to help the people. She goes a little faster than normal, but she sees no need to rush for these people. Plus she’s still a little mad that they interrupted her when she could have been talking to Laura who was at least fun to mess with. These people, well they seem as dull as that law textbook she found in her mother’s room once. 

When she arrives to help, she is proven right. There’s absolutely nothing exciting about the people asking for assistance, just another suburban family trying to take advantage of weekly deals. Before anyone says anything she already knows what the issue is and it’s the bread. It’s buy one get one free and nobody seems to read the sign that says those sorts of things come off at the end so before she has to listen to the same old “My buy one get one free didn’t come off” she presses continue and like magic, if someone could make magic boring, the sale comes off.

“Oh never mind. Thank you!” The generic looking dad seemed pleased with himself as though that free bread was the equivalent of winning the lottery. Carmilla couldn’t care less, but at least she knew Laura would be coming through soon. Not that she cared, but the girl was far more amusing than most of the people that came through. She always gets so frustrated and Carmilla finds it hilarious and well kind of adorable in a way. It was going to be a bit though before Laura was done shopping and so back to flipping a coin it is.

_________________________

Carmilla was starting to think Laura was never going to finish her shopping. It had been twenty minute since she almost walked into her with a pile of baskets. She’d never seen Laura buy more than a few things and it couldn’t possibly take more than 10 minutes to gather a decent pile of sweets and soda. But somehow it has been twenty minutes and Carmilla is getting a little impatient, not that she’s willing to admit that. 

Finally she sees Laura approaching her usual machine. There are five different self-scan machines to choose from, but Laura always goes to the same. Not that she pays attention to which one Laura goes to, but when you have to go over there all the time it’s hard not to pick up on it. Despite taking what seemed like an eternity to go shopping, Laura has in her cart what she pretty much always does with one exception; Laura also has an apple. The apple looks a little out of place on top of several packages of cookies and Carmilla knows Laura is gonna need help putting a produce item through the machine. She can’t wait to see the look on Laura’s face when she realizes that she can’t just scan the apple.

Carmilla watches as Laura successfully scans her items and starts sending them down the belt. Carmilla bags what Laura sends her. She had bagged the chocolate chips when Laura had managed to put the machine in Spanish and she wasn’t doing anything at the moment so bagging was alright. Besides, Laura had already been in the store for twenty minutes, there was no reason she should have to be trapped here any longer, Carmilla would leave now if she could, but she still had another hour to go. Lucky her. She’s always technically supposed to bag for the people who use these machines, but she never really bothers with that unless the manager is watching her. However she doesn’t mind bagging for Laura. Plus cookies and soda are some of the easiest things to bag. 

Laura leaves the apple for last and Carmilla can tell she’s been avoiding it. Carmilla watches as Laura stares at the apple. It looks as though she’s interrogating the apple, begging it to tell her all of its secrets. Carmilla catches herself staring at Laura in a similar manner. She’s just being attentive, she assures herself as she shifts her eyes from Laura to the light that she knows is about to start blinking any second. It doesn’t take long for her to be proved right.

“Need some help, sweetheart?” Carmilla asks, deriving far too much pleasure from the look of defeat on Laura’s face.

“This apple is a mystery to me,” Laura replies. “I’m not a doctor, but an apple a day is certainly keeping me away.”

Carmilla laughs. That was the corniest joke possible and Carmilla laughed. What was wrong with her? “Well you usually hit the product look up to put produce through, but here.” Carmilla enters the number for the apple, weighs it, and then puts it on the belt. 

“Thanks, Carmilla.” Carmilla checks to see if she accidentally put on a name-tag, but she’s definitely not wearing one. She’d only told her her name once, but Laura had remembered it.

“No problem, cupcake.”

“It’s Laura.”

“Right,” Carmilla replies as if she didn’t remember. But really how could she forget? “Enjoy your apple.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With popcorn comes success and disappointment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always thanks to everybody who has taken the time to read my little story. Thank you for the kind words. I truly appreciate it. 
> 
> Tumblr: gillimon97.tumblr.com

She wanders the aisles aimlessly. This is far from the first time she’s been here. In fact she’s been to the store at least once everyday this week. There’s always something Laura needs, well not exactly needs, but there’s certainly always something she wants. Today though she actually needs to get some popcorn. Her neighbor, and well friend, Danny is supposed to come over later to watch a movie and you really can’t watch a movie without popcorn. So here she is, at the local grocery store again. She really should be in and out, but Danny won’t be over for several hours and so Laura has some time to kill and there was also the fact the Laura didn’t see Carmilla at her usual spot and so Laura figured she was probably on break. She had yet to prove to Carmilla that she could use her good ol’ pal self-scan without assistance. She couldn’t show Carmilla her skills if she was on break and so Laura decided to walk the store for a bit.

Eventually, after meandering through several aisle filled with various items she will never buy, Laura heads to the snack aisle. This is her home. Cookies, chips, and other delicious treats that Laura can’t get enough of. She knows she should probably eat better, but she’s almost always busy with one thing or another. Besides she bought an apple the other day and that counts for something even if the actual purchase was a struggle. Carmilla’s grin at her confusion is impossible for Laura to forget. One day she would wipe that smug look off the snarky girl’s face. In fact today will be that day, but first she has to pick some popcorn. She had never noticed how many popcorn options there are. There is literally an option for any amount of butter, from none to more butter than popcorn. It’s crazy and also a beautiful sight. After several minutes of deciding how much butter is too much butter, Laura settles for the standard amount of butter. Maybe someday she should try all the different options. It sounds like a good idea. She wonders if Carmilla likes popcorn. Maybe she’ll ask her when she successfully completes this transaction.

With popcorn in hand and figuring that Carmilla would be back from break, Laura heads to her usual register. She still doesn’t see Carmilla, but there really is nothing else to do in the store but checkout. So she pulls out her trusty card and scans it. Success, no problems there. It’s time for the popcorn. Beep. Perfectly scanned. Everything is going smoothly and Laura is glowing with confidence. She’s got this in the bag. Well not yet, bagging is the last step, but Carmilla usually does that part. Laura grabs a pack of gum and scans that too, just for good measure. A smile spreads across Laura’s face. All she has left to do is pay. She presses continue and swipes her card. She enters her pin and confirms the amount. She hears the sound of the receipt printing and it’s almost surreal. She won. She didn’t need anyone’s help. 

“Yes,” Laura whispers in a way that she’s actually just shouting really quietly. Laura is bubbling with enthusiasm, and the urge to victory dance overwhelms her. She deserves this little dance.

She grabs her receipt, not even attempting to lessen the grin spread widely across her face. She heads to the end of the register to grab her items and show Carmilla proof of her success, but when she gets there she sees that her things aren’t in a bag. That’s weird. Carmilla always bags it, even if it’s just one thing. Maybe she just wants her to prove she can bag too. So Laura puts her items in the bag and looks around. Carmilla is still nowhere in sight. When the light on the register next to her starts blinking Laura knows that Carmilla will have to head over so she waits for Carmilla to get there to help the person who wasn’t as good as her at using self-scan. However the person that arrives to help isn’t Carmilla and suddenly her success doesn’t feel so exciting. Laura realizes that she can’t just assume Carmilla is gonna be there every time she goes to the story. Carmilla must have a day off from work every now and then. She still succeeded and she could always tell Carmilla next time, but it wouldn’t be the same. No matter what she tells herself, Laura just can’t seem to shake the disappointment caused by Carmilla’s absence.

______________________________

Laura fumbles for her keys to get into her house. She could never find the right one. She had more keys than she did dvds and boy did she have a lot of dvds. The dvds though were her choice, the keys not so much. Her dad insisted she locked just about everything up for safety. In fact she had to unlock three locks just to get into her house. She lives in a nice neighborhood and she knows no one is going to break in, but her dad wanted to be sure and she felt like he would know if she ever failed to lock up the house before going out. Normally the keys didn’t really bother her, but today her inability to find the right key was frustrating. After several attempts though she manages to find the right key. It feels a lot like breaking into her own house.

Laura puts her keys and bag on the counter and looks over at the clock. She sighs, realizing there’s still another hour before Danny is due to come over. Danny is a good friend. She always seems to make Laura smile and Laura hopes that holds true because well she is just not over the grocery store disappointment. She knows she shouldn’t be this upset. She barely knows Carmilla, they’re not even technically friends, but how was she supposed to gloat about her success if Carmilla wasn’t there. It was no fun at all. She can’t expect Carmilla to always be at work, but Laura does and she can’t help it. 

Laura decides to spend the time looking for a movie for her and Danny to watch instead of continuing thinking about Carmilla. She decides to go for a comedy as she could use a good laugh and Danny always seemed to like comedies. After what seems like an eternity of trying to pick a movie and simultaneously trying to avoid thinking about the broody self-scan girl who will not be named, Laura settles on “Monty Python.” People always seem to be quoting things from it, she even quotes it sometimes, and well it’s pretty funny if she remembers correctly. 

Laura is about to check the time when she hears a knock on the door. Danny must be here. When Laura looks at the clock she sees that Danny is exactly on time. She’s always so punctual, it kind of amazes Laura who has a tendency to run a little late. Laura opens the door and looks up to see Danny smiling above her. Laura is still not sure how Danny doesn’t constantly hit her head on things. 

“What’s up, Hollis,” Danny asks cheerfully as Laura invites her in.

Laura shrugs. “Not much,” she replies with far less enthusiasm. “I chose Monty Python. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Of course not,” Danny says with a little less confidence. “You always have good taste in movies, besides people quote that one all the time.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, really. I’m fine.” Laura knows she’s not acting very excited about their movie night. She likes Danny and movies, but she’s just not feeling it anymore.

“You can talk to me if you want or I can go home if you’re not feeling up to it.” Danny is always so nice. She knows she could talk to her, but there’s really nothing to talk about and there’s certainly no need to cancel their plans.

“No really it’s all good. I’m gonna go make the popcorn,” Laura says hoping it comes out sounding more excited than she feels. “Can you put the movie on?”

“Yeah, I can do that,” Danny replies, still seeming to doubt Laura’s enthusiasm.

Soon the popcorn is made and the movie is playing. It’s not a bad movie, Danny seems to laugh every now and then which cues Laura to laugh too, but she never really gets into it. It always seemed so much funnier when people quoted it, but as a full movie it didn’t seem to live up to the hype. Danny can clearly tell Laura is off and so when the movie is over and Laura asks if she wants to watch something else Danny politely declines the offer. She offers Laura a goodnight and heads home. Laura won’t say it, but she’s kind of relieved. She still can’t seem to shake her mood. Why couldn’t the broody girl be working today? Suddenly Laura lets out a little laugh. 

“Who's the broody one now, Carmilla,” Laura says out loud to no one but herself before heading to bed. She falls asleep as soon as her head hits the pillow.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been far too long since Laura has come shopping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember when I said weekly updates....ooops. Sorry it's been forever. Hope you enjoy this chapter at least a little bit. Also as always thanks to everyone for reading and for your kind words. Have a lovely day.

Five days. That’s how long it’s been since Laura has gone shopping. Carmilla wasn’t counting or anything it’s just been five days since she’s had a day off and she has yet to see Laura at the store once. Doesn’t the girl eat? The thought almost makes Carmilla laugh out loud. Of course Laura eats. She buys so many snacks every time she’s at the store. How has she gone five days without buying any more cookies or grape soda? Carmilla swears Laura needs ten times as much sugar as a normal person in order to survive. So it’s hard to believe that Laura hasn’t been to the store to stock up on her stash of sweets. 

 

It shouldn’t matter to Carmilla. She knows she shouldn’t be bothered by the Laura’s absence, she hardly even knows her, but that doesn’t stop her from brooding. Carmilla’s never been particularly happy to be at work, in fact usually she’s pretty damn miserable, nor have her manners ever been the best when it comes to imbecilic customers, but in the over the past five Laura-less days she has become even more grumpy than was previously thought possible. Even her coworkers have been calling her out. It’s all “chill Karnstein” and “relax we all hate it here” and “You can’t just tell someone they need to take a goddamn bath.” But without that overly peppy and well cute girl to make work tolerable Carmilla just doesn’t know how to keep her mouth shut.

Carmilla’s eye is drawn to another blinking light, signaling the need for her assistance. She groans and rolls her eyes. Begrudgingly she makes her way to the register. “What do you need,” Carmilla mutters not even attempting to hide her annoyance.

“Well hello to you too,” a voice that sounds like music replies sarcastically.

Carmilla looks up startled by the girl she was beginning to doubt existed. A smile spreads across Carmilla’s face and before she can regain her cool apathetic composure, Kirsch walks by shouting “Hey dudes, Karnstein’s actually smiling!” 

“Shut it, beefcake,” Carmilla replies, but it’s too late.

“Awww did you miss me?” Laura teases.

“Not a bit,” Carmilla answers, but with the way it comes out no one would believe that lie. “It’s been awhile though and it is nice to deal with someone who’s not a complete moron. How have you gone so long without buying any sweets? I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“You really do know how to charm the ladies. By the way I actually managed to use the machine without needing any help the other day.”

“Oh yeah. I’m not sure I believe you. Why are you lying to me, cupcake?” Carmilla missed messing with this girl.

“I’m not lying. I swear I did it all by myself,” Laura huffs. “The light didn’t blink a single time. I scanned my card and my items and I payed and not a single time did I need assistance.” 

“Right. Well aren’t you a big girl now,” Carmilla smirks. “It’s looking like you’re a one hit wonder, cutie cuz you’re light is most certainly blinking. What seems to be the problem today?”

“It keeps rejecting my drink.” Laura holds up a half consumed bottle of soda.

“Sweetheart that’s because you drank half of it.” Carmilla can’t help but let out a small chuckle. “First you lie to me and now you’re stealing from my store. Tsk tsk. Since when did you become a such a rebel? I think I might have to get security down here, you might be a little hostile, I could be in danger.”

“First of all I didn’t lie. I totally did this all by myself. Secondly I’m not a thief….I just got thirsty. Everyone takes a sip or two when they’re waiting in line.”

“Whatever you say,” Carmilla replies, overriding the security and allowing the soda to go through. “Next time you have to buy the product before you drink it.” Carmilla winks and begins to walk off. Why did she just wink. What on earth is this girl doing to her? 

“Wait,” Laura shouts a little louder than necessary. 

Carmilla turns around. “Yes, cutie.”

“Ummm I forgot my card and well I would just use the store card, but if I spend another ten dollars I get a free package of cookies and I refuse to lose my free cookies.”

“We couldn’t have that, could we” Carmilla answers. “I just need your phone number and I’ll put your card in.”

“Oh is that how we’re playing it?” Carmilla is caught off guard by Laura’s rather defensive response. “We’re bargaining phone numbers for assistance now. Well alright I’ll play along, but you better actually text or call me or something.” Laura pulls out a notepad and a pen and Carmilla can’t contain her laughter. “What’s so funny?” Laura asks confused.

“Cupcake, I asked for your number so I could look up your card, but by all means who am I to say no to a pretty girl’s phone number.”

“Oh.” Embarrassment flushes over Laura’s face and it’s adorable. “Well here,” Laura manages to say while handing Carmilla the paper on which she had written her number.

“Well thanks, Cutie.” Carmilla puts in the number to pull up Laura’s card and pockets the paper. “I’ll be sure to ‘text or call or something.’”

“Thank you.” Laura quickly finishes her transaction and rushes off.

Carmilla can’t keep the smile off her face the rest of the day. After five days of not seeing Laura she accidentally got her number. Now the only problem is she has to text her and what on earth do you say to girl you’ve only ever spoken with at self checkout? Carmilla decides to play it cool and wait a day or two to text Laura. If she does it now she’ll just embarrass herself and right now she’d rather let Laura be the one who’s embarrassed, embarrassed looks adorable on Laura. Carmilla can’t help but replay their interaction over and over in her head. The five days was totally worth it.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura pays very close attention to her phone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I've taken so long to update this. I got a new computer today though and this one actually functions so I felt like writing. Enjoy the new chapter and as always thanks for reading!

The door slams shut behind her. Did that really just happen? Did she really force her number onto the cute girl at self checkout? Well she seemed to accept it gladly and she did kinda ask for it, just not exactly for the reason Laura had in mind. She totally embarrassed herself She seems to do that a lot actually. This time was extra embarrassing though and what’s even more embarrassing is how she’s since turned her phone volume all the way up. It’s been maybe fifteen minutes. Carmilla is definitely still at work, but that doesn’t stop Laura from constantly checking her phone. Unfortunately staring at her phone does not actually make it ring so Laura is forced to find some sort of distraction. 

Laura decides to cook dinner. Half a bottle of grape soda, though delicious, was not exactly a complete meal. Laura searches her kitchen for something to eat, but her cabinets are barren and her fridge resembles Antarctica. There’s no way she’s going back to the store though. Now that would really be embarrassing. So to avoid the embarrassment of seeing Carmilla twenty minutes after she practically shoved her number into the broody girl’s hand, she decides to order a pizza. Pizza is always a good distraction and well as much as Laura hates to admit it she does have the local pizza shop on speed dial.   
“Hello, thank you for calling Perry’s Pizza, may I take your order?”

“Hi, yeah I-”

“Oh hey Laura! I suppose you want the usual,” the person on the phone interrupts before Laura can actual order.

“Yeah that would be great. Thanks Laf.”

“No problamo, my friend. It’ll be at your door in 25 minutes.”

“You’re the best,”

“And don’t you forget it. Have a good night and enjoy your pizza.”

“You too,” Laura replies ending the call and realizing she did the whole “you too” thing. She does it at the movies all the time. They’re all “enjoy the show” and she can’t help but say “you too.” It’s a natural response, it just slips out. She said in response to happy birthday once and well that was a little awkward.

With the pizza on its way Laura decides to put on some Doctor Who. She always becomes entranced when she watches that show so she figures it’ll be a good distraction. Twenty minutes later the doorbell rings, startling Laura. She almost forgot she ordered pizza. 

With pizza in hand Laura returns to her show and once more falls into the wibbly wobbly timey wimey world of Doctor Who. Three episodes and half a pizza later Laura hears something. It’s only a quick ding so Laura pays no attention to it. Until about three minutes later when she hears it again. This time she realizes what it is, jumping out of her seat and scrambling to find her phone. She practically tears the couch apart only to find that her phone is actually in her back pocket. 

Laura pulls her phone out but she’s almost nervous to look at it. She knows she shouldn’t be, it’s just a girl she’s not usually nervous around girls. Heck she can’t even guarantee that the message is even from Carmilla, it could be anyone. In fact it’s far more likely that it’s just her dad checking up on her. Yeah that’s probably it. Laura unlocks her phone and opens the message.   
Well it’s certainly not from her dad. The message simply reads “Hey cutie” but Laura is flustered nonetheless. It takes Laura several minutes to process what’s happening. She quickly saves Carmilla’s number and goes to respond. Wait. Maybe she should play it cool and wait a little bit. Laura doesn’t want to seem too eager. Laura paces back and forth for about thirty seconds before she caves and responds.

Laura: Hi :)

Carmilla: How’s that stolen soda? 

Laura: Hey! I paid for that soda! 

Carmilla: Only after you drank half of it. That’s stealing you know. But that’s not the only thing you stole.

Laura: What else could I possibly have stolen, officer?

Carmilla: My heart ;)

Laura pauses. Well that was unexpected. How on earth is she supposed to respond to that. She wasn’t ready for flirting.

Laura: Haha oh 

Carmilla: Relax, I’m just having fun

Laura: Oh I am very relaxed.

Carmilla: Yeah? What are you doing?

Laura realizes she’s not doing anything outside of texting Carmilla. She stopped paying attention to the tv as soon as she realized her phone was going off. She can’t tell Carmilla that though. So she lies, it’s only a small lie, nothing important.

Laura: Just reading a book

Carmilla: What book? 

Laura picks the first book she sees on her bookshelf.

Laura: The Second Jungle Book

Carmilla: Ah yes, Kipling. Black as the pit and terrible…

Laura: So you know it

Carmilla: I know a lot of things

Laura: I’m sure you do

Carmilla: I do and if you come to dinner with me friday night I’ll be sure to let you in on some of the things I know

Laura: I’ll check my schedule

Laura: You’re in luck. I was gonna binge watch Buffy that night but I suppose that can wait.

Carmilla: So you’re into vampires, huh. Well it’s a date then.

Laura: Looks like it is :)

Laura has to remind herself that this is really happening. She is actually going on a date with the checkout girl. She is filled with a mix of joy and terror like being on a rollercoaster. This could be the start of something amazing or she could totally blow it and make a fool of herself. She really hopes it’s the first one.

Carmilla: 7 work for you?

Laura: Yeah that works just fine.

Carmilla: Okay good. I’ll pick you up then. For now though I have to go. Have a goodnight, Cupcake.

Laura: Yeah you too :)

Well at least “you too” was an appropriate response this time. Laura rereads the chat several times, each time her smile growing. She let’s out a squeal of joy. Friday night she has a date. Friday is still three days away. Laura can’t help but hope those three days go by quick.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carmilla gets ready for the date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been forever. This is a really short chapter, but I felt like writing. Also it's my birthday and I have nothing better to do. Hopefully I'll find the time to update again soon. As always thanks for reading and have a lovely day :)

Today is the day. Carmilla’s one day off this week, but more importantly the day of her date with Laura. They’d planned it three days ago and in those three days Laura did not go to the store at all, well as far as Carmilla knew. Laura could have gone to the store when she wasn’t working, but why would she do that? It’s far more likely that the sugar addicted girl already had plenty of snacks at home. The lack of Laura was unfortunate nonetheless as three days of work without a visit from the small bubbly girl made for a grumpy Carmilla. Not that she was ever not grumpy, but Laura’s presence had a habit of at least giving her a chuckle. None of that matters now though because tonight Carmilla gets Laura all to herself with no need to worry about the idiots who don’t understand that "put your item on the belt" does not mean throw it halfway down the belt and be surprised when it fails security. 

Carmilla knows just what to wear. It’s time to break out the leather pants. It’s been far too long since she’s worn them. Apparently leather does not fall within the dress code for some ridiculous reason. Her coworkers can stroll in with green pants and it’s no problem, in fact the managers really love those green pants, but god forbid she wear leather and it’s all “be professional Carmilla. How are people supposed to approach you for help when you dress like that?” Her uniform already says “happy to help” and while that’s a complete lie it’s there and there’s no reason the rest of her outfit shouldn’t say the opposite. Tonight though, Carmilla is free to wear whatever she wants and she’s pretty sure Laura’s not gonna complain about it. Carmilla adds some boots and a flannel to complete the outfit. Now all she has to do is wait to pick up Laura at eight. Unfortunately it’s only six so she has some time to kill. Perhaps she’ll get some reading done.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Well Carmilla managed to read about ten pages in the past hour and half. It’s surprising that she was even able to read that much with how little she could pay attention. She’s not nervous, she just can’t seem to think about anything other than Laura. At least it’s time to go now, so she heads to her car. Hopefully Laura likes the restaurant she’s picked out. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She’s been at the door for about five minutes now. It’s probably time to knock. Okay she just needs to take one more deep breath and she’ll be fine. Carmilla’s not nervous though, she just wants to be sure Laura is ready when she knocks. She should be good now, so before she can change her mind Carmilla knocks. No one responds for about a minute and maybe she should just go. Carmilla starts to turn around when suddenly the door opens.

“Where are you going?” A small voice calls from the doorway. Boy did she miss that voice. 

“Nowhere sweetheart,” Carmilla replies with a smirk. God she was beautiful. Laura always looked great, but that dress she’s wearing is stunning. Carmilla is sure she’s staring, but she can’t help it.

“Alright good, thought you might’ve been bailing on me?” the chipper girl says.

“Now why on earth would I do that? I would be crazy to walk out on such a pretty girl like you.” Carmilla’s response causes Laura to blush and Carmilla can’t hold back a grin.

“Right also woah. Can’t say I was expecting leather pants, but they definitely suit you.”

“Believe it or not I do own clothing outside of grocery store polos and aprons.”

“I know, just wow. I mean I get that you wear other things, but I’ve just never seen you not at work and well I just sorta got used to....” Carmilla revels in the bubbly girls awkwardness. She’s cute when she’s flustered.

“I get it, sweetheart,” Carmilla cuts Laura off. The rambling is adorable, but for Laura’s sake she figures she should probably stop her. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah totally. Let’s go.”

Carmilla can’t believe this is actually happening. She’s really going on a date with Laura, the girl who clearly survives on pure sugar and can’t quite figure out how to ring up her own groceries.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura and Carmilla go on their date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading and for the birthday wishes. I truly appreciate it. Hope you enjoy this little chapter and have a lovely day.

This is not real. There is no way she is sitting across a table from the beautiful girl from the grocery store, who by the way looks even hotter not in a work uniform. She didn’t even know people owned leather pants, but boy is she glad that Carmilla owns a pair. Despite the countless times this girl has watched Laura completely fail to use a very simple machine, Carmilla is out on a date with her. Carmilla even laughed at one of Laura’s jokes, and even Laura knew that it was not even a little funny. Everything about this evening is surreal. 

Laura’s thoughts are interrupted by a voice. “What?” Laura asks.

“Umm,” the waiter began.

Carmilla cut him off “Cupcake, this nice man would like to take your order. See something you like?” Carmilla winks. 

To be honest, Laura hadn’t looked at the menu at all. She’d been far too busy staring at Carmilla, which if she’s being really honest was probably more like gawking at her. Why exactly did Carmilla agree to go out with a dork like her? To cover her obvious lack of menu reading, Laura orders the special.

“Alright and you,” the waiter asks Carmilla.

“I’ll have the prime rib. Rare, please.” So Carmilla likes her meat rare. It’s a tad creepy, yet it feels right.

“Thank you. That’ll be right out.” The waiter takes his leave.

Carmilla speaks as soon as the waiter is gone. “I didn’t take you for a vegetable lover,” she says with a chuckle.

“Huh?” What gives her the idea that Laura loves vegetables? Laura is pretty sure Carmilla has noticed that her typical groceries consist primarily of sweets.

“You ordered the special. The vegetarian stir fry?” 

“Right,” Laura replies.

“You sound surprised.” Clearly Carmilla can see right through her, but that certainly won’t stop her from rambling.

“No, no of course that’s what I ordered. I do know what I chose from the menu to eat for dinner. I love vegetables. Eat them all the time. My friends, you know what they say about me?”  
“No sweetheart, what do the say?” Laura can tell that Carmilla is loving this, and oh god Laura should really stop this rambling, but at this point there’s no turning back.

“Well, they say Laura loves vegetables. She eats nothing but vegetables. Her garden, full of those yummy vegetables.”

“So you have a garden? What do you grow?”

“Okay well I don’t actually have a garden. I’m too busy for a garden, but if I did have a garden I would totally grow vegetables.” Why is she still going on about vegetables? She doesn’t even really like vegetables. 

“Right. You do know I see your groceries all the time, right cupcake? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you buy a vegetable and no offense but I really don’t think you’re secretly buying vegetables from a local farmstand.” Carmilla isn’t even trying to hide her smirk. 

“Alright fine.” Laura knows it’s time to come clean. “I had one too many cookies today and I thought I needed some vegetables.” Oops.

“Mhm. I’m sure that’s it. Name three things on the menu,” Carmilla replies.

“Umm yeah so there was this delicious vegetarian stir fry, and well prime rib, and ummmm.” Laura’s got this. She can totally name one other thing. “And well pizza.” Pizza is always a good guess.

“Well you managed to name both of our orders and pizza. Sweetheart, I’m not sure if you know this, but we are at what some might consider a fancy restaurant. Pizza isn’t exactly on the menu.” Shoot. 

“Are you sure? Because I’m pretty sure it’s one of those secret items.”

“I’m pretty sure.” Carmilla chuckled. “Now I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say you didn’t read the menu and for that I apologize. Clearly I am far too distracting.” Laura blushes. She’s never going to live this down.

Before Laura can come up with some other ridiculous excuse the waiter returns with their food. The rest of the evening passes quickly and without too much embarrassment for Laura. They eat and chat. Despite the fact that her meal is basically a cooked salad, it’s quite good. When they finish, the waiter comes by with the check. Laura offers to pay, but Carmilla refuses to let her. 

After their meal, Carmilla drives Laura home and walks her to her door.

“Thank you,” Laura says.

“For what?” Carmilla replies, clearly a bit confused.

“For tonight. It was fun.”

“Well it was my pleasure, cupcake.” Carmilla smiles. It’s the truly genuine smile that Laura loved to see.

“Goodnight, Carmilla.” 

Carmilla steps closer and Laura feels her heartbeat increase tenfold. Before she can overthink it, Laura closes her eyes and leans forward. Suddenly she feels Carmilla’s lips on hers. It only lasts a second, but that second is quite possibly in the running for the best single second of Laura’s life.

“Goodnight, Laura.” Carmilla waves goodbye as she turns around and returns to her car. Laura watches as Carmilla’s headlights turn on and she drives away. As soon as Carmilla’s car is out of sight Laura goes inside and leans against the door. Best. Night. Ever.


End file.
